Being Spiritual

Acts 2:1-21

June 4, 2006

Today is the day of the church calendar on which we celebrate Pentecost.  Pentecost, in a sense, is like the birthday of the church as we know it, when the era of Jesus’ earthly ministry ended, and we became the body of Christ by being given the gift of the Holy Spirit.

After all, what would a birthday celebration be without a gift?

Actually, the Holy Spirit was evident in scripture from the very beginning. Genesis 1:1 speaks of the “Spirit of God hovering over the waters” at the creation. The Spirit was part of the process of creation.
But the promise of the Holy Spirit’s coming in a different way was prophesied in Joel 2:28, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”

God was letting humanity know that there would come a time when we would be filled with His Spirit in order to work for God’s kingdom here on earth as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Preparing us for this new era, John the Baptist said in Mark 1:8, “I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Even Jesus said in John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

And so, as we heard this morning, on the day of Pentecost when “they were all together in one place, suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” It was a real attention getter. It filled the whole house, startling everyone.

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  Pretty cool!

Then, scripture tells us, they spoke in other languages. “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (v. 4). It was like being at the United Nations where you speak and everyone hears the translation in their own language—except without the technology!  Present were Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and others, who recognized that the Galileans didn’t know these languages.   In verse 13, some of the people mocked and made fun. They said, “They have had too much wine.” That makes sense: have a glass of wine, speak Lithuanian!

Just what was God’s purpose for giving the Spirit on that Pentecost day, and what does it mean for us here today?

Well there are 2 important events that take place in the Bible concerning the life of a Christian. The first, of course is the death of Christ and His resurrection after 3 days in the grave. Christ was nailed to a cross, and shed his blood for our sins so that we may have eternal life. When we ask Jesus into our lives, and ask for forgiveness for our sins, we are born into the body of Christ, becoming one with our Lord. This is the joy that we have as believers.

Unfortunately, we concentrate so much on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and His triumph over death for our sins, that we may not realize the importance of the second event, the gift of the Holy Spirit from God.

It is the Holy Spirit that empowers us to live our lives for Christ. And so it is both the sacrifice at the cross and the coming of the Holy Spirit that defines our lives as Christians. The Methodist church recognizes this. The symbol for our church is the cross and the flame.

The first, the Cross, redeems us so that we would joyfully serve the Lord, and the second—the Spirit—enables us to do so.

It is the Holy Spirit which gave the Galileans the power to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we, as believers in Christ, have that same power, that same strength, that same Spirit, available to us just as it was given to the disciples on that Pentecost two thousand years ago!

Look at what happened to the disciples before and after they received the Holy Spirit. These men had been with Jesus for 3 years. Living with Him, eating, sleeping, talking, teaching, every hour of every day. Yet, they often argued with each other, were easily offended, impulsive and prejudiced. Not the kind of men someone would call upon to turn the world upside down.

And when Christ was crucified, where did you find them? Hiding behind closed doors, afraid. Even after Jesus rose and appeared to them and hundreds of others, you didn’t see them running around in the streets, proclaiming the gospel, unafraid of the Jewish leaders. No, they felt ill-equipped and afraid to do God’s work.

But, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they were filled with a power like never before.

Suddenly, Peter is standing before thousands, preaching. They all start speaking in other languages. They are taken before the courts and threatened with their lives, yet bravely and confidently keep preaching the good news.
Friends, we too have that power.

Do you feel that you are called to serve Christ, but feel that you just don’t know what to do?  Or are you led to work with kids in VBS, or to sing or play an instrument with the praise team, but like the disciples, feel ill-equipped?  Or do you just want to share the love of Jesus with a friend or neighbor or family member, but don’t have the words to say?

It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the ability to witness to the world. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us words to say when our minds go blank. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to carry out Christ’s command to preach to all the nations and make disciples of every nation. It is through the Holy Spirit that we are able to love the unlovable, minister to the unwanted, serve those who reject us and grow the kingdom of God .

The Holy Spirit gives us the power to use the gifts which God has given us so that we may share the love of God with others. 

A pretty neat gift if I do say so.

I brought a flashlight with me today. Think of this flashlight as us as believers. We are supposed to be God’s light in this world. Now everything about this flashlight appears to work correctly. The bulb is good, the switch works correctly, everything is screwed together the way it’s supposed to be. Yet it doesn’t work.

Why? Well because I forgot to put the batteries in. You could have the most expensive flashlight in the world, with a 3000 watt bulb, but without batteries, it’s worthless, as a flashlight anyway. I guess you could use it as a hammer, or a club or an anchor, but that’s not what it was made for.

It is the batteries that give this flashlight the power to shine, to show the way in the dark. It is the batteries that make the flashlight work the way it was supposed to. And it is the Holy Spirit that gives us our power. It is the Holy Spirit that makes us work the way we were meant to. When we use the Spirit we can do all things for Christ. Without the Spirit we can do nothing.

But with the Spirit, we can turn a world upside down and shine God’s light into a dark world, we can be the Body of Christ in our world.

Let your light be powered by the Holy Spirit so you can shine God’s light in His world, because God knows we need it!

Celebrate God’s Spirit in your life on this Pentecost Sunday as you find ways to serve Him.  Don’t be timid or worry about being ill-equipped—the Holy Spirit will provide all you need!